Letter: Deaf ears

Thursday

We agree with Mary Goldsmith’s July 22 letter encouraging people not to be apathetic but to vote and to contact their congressional delegates and President Obama about the debt ceiling issue.

Well, we have contacted Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, both R-Kan., and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan. We registered our concerns about the tone of the debate from the Republican side of the aisle and urged them to support a balanced approach of reducing spending and increasing revenues by reducing some tax breaks for the wealthy. It was a good exercise in citizenship, but the responses we received were merely more rhetoric supporting Republican Party ideology, which favors the wealthy over the middle class.

As our representatives decide the debt ceiling issue, they should consider defense spending. The House recently voted a $17 billion increase in defense spending for 2012. How does this show a true effort to cut the deficit? When wars are fought for the benefit of defense contractors and oil companies, and the result is huge increases in the deficit, we doubt the sincerity of the Republican Party’s claim to want to reduce spending and cut the deficit.

While we urge all eligible Kansans to vote and to contact their congressional representatives to make their thoughts known, we believe that voting may be the only way to get the attention of these representatives.

LEE and LINDA HARMON,

Topeka

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